SweaterMod!
As I’ve been too uninspired to start any new knitting lately, I decided it was time to make some much needed modifications to my Sampler Sweater. (Finished result seen here. Try not to get too distracted by my SEXXAY sweatpants.) The first issue was that the neck was too big. The pattern called for the neck to take up 33% of body stitches, but as I was doing a big floppy sweater, that ended up being way big for me. Every time I wore it, I felt like I was wearing a boat neck instead of a crew neck. Luckily I had some of the white wool left, so I simply picked up inside the existing collar and knitted a new one, making it a bit longer so it peeks out like an undershirt. It’s not a huge difference, but it definitely helps the collar hold its shape a bit better. The second problems were the cuffs and ribbing, which ended up shapeless and inelastic. I decided to unpick them and re-knit them on smaller needles to pull them in a bit. The first challenge was undoing the cast-on edge of the waist ribbing. Big problem. For some reason, I had this idea that you could just rip back knitting from the bottom the same way you can from the top. Turns out it doesn’t. Each and every stitch has to be unpicked by hand. As the sweater is a couple hundred stitches around (and the ribbing is fourteen rows deep), I soon realized this was going to take FOREVER. So then I had the brilliant but scary idea to pick up stitches just about the ribbing, cut the sweater, and then unravel the ribbing down from there. It was a bit iffy at first, but in the end it worked beautifully. I then knitted my new ribbing back down from there. I was so happy with the result that I unpicked the cuffs (I could rip them) and reknitted those too. Et voila! A newly wearable sweater that I’m actually satisfied with.
Manda
April 28, 2005 — 12:59 am
I think I’m gonna have to take the scissors to my Ravenclaw scarf too. It was my very first knitting project, and the first 2.5 stripes have twisted stitches. (That’s what you get learning from the internet/books!) At the time the thought of starting over pained me, so I just kept going but in the correct way. Now that I’m nearing completion I know the messed up part will grate forever if I don’t do something about it. Stitch ‘N Bitch says that unraveling from the bottom and knitting those rows back again will result in stitches that are half a stitch off from the earlier work. I’ll probably try to disguise it near a stripe border or else cast off and pick up again from between each stitch. I’m following atypically.knit’s tubular pattern, so a messy WS won’t show.
Kris
April 28, 2005 — 8:38 am
Yeah, my ribbing is half a stitch off now on the cuffs, but you can’t tell at all. I’d almost think you’d be better off not doing it near a stripe border but burying the change in the middle of one of the solid color stripes. Unless you used a super thick yarn where the stitches really stand our, you probably wouldn’t notice.
But yeah, I’m thinking of dismantling my Gryffindor too. I did it in the “new” style of the scarves (the ones from Azkaban), but I think I’d prefer one of the originals. They stand out more.